Sunday, May 10, 2009

Free Comic Book Day Special Review #2 - Atomic Robo

Time to review my second choice on Free Comic Book Day : Atomic Robo by Red 5 Comics. Thanks to Shawn for picking up this issue for me since I had to work. Click below for review:If you’ve never read Atomic Robo before, what the hell? This is easily one of the funniest books out there. There are 2 trade paperback volumes in print and the third story arc, Shadow Beyond Time, just started last week. The first volume of Atomic Robo brought us the now infamous “Stephen Hawking is a Bastard” prank.

The Free Comic Book Day offering is an original story titled “Why Atomic Robo Hates Dr. Dinosaur.” It’s an 8 page story written by Brian Clevenger with art by Scott Wegener that just screams to be made into a short animated clip. Did everyone hear me? ATOMIC ROBO NEEDS TO BE ANIMATED!!! OK? Moving on.

The short story basically involves Dr. Dinosaur, a speaking insane genius (or so he claims) Velociraptor and Atomic Robo battling on a remote island. Basically, Atomic Robo is attempting to convince Dr. Dinosaur that time travel is impossible and that he is not, in fact, from the past but a genetic experiment gone wrong. This angers Dr. D who comes up with such witty retorts as “Am not!” and “I had crystals!”

One of the best lines of the book is also from the evil Dr. Dinosaur : “Behold the pulpy fruit of my vastly superior reptilian intelligence!” The ending had me laughing out loud due to the reveal of the contents of Dr. D’s cooler which has the “secret of time travel”. The last page has no dialog and is played solely with facial expressions and one long shot of the island. Great stuff, and if you enjoy humor and history twisted around a little bit, check out this incredible book from Red 5.